I like to look at the quotations at the bottom of the word of the day. Usually I smile or think for a moment, sometimes I save them for future reference. Sometimes they really bother me.

I've managed to delete the one from a few days ago from Pablo Picasso. It was something along the lines of "Don't put off until tomorrow anything that you could die left undone". I'm sure someone will be able to post the exact quotation for me (it isn't in the archive).

That really bothered me. I prefer to live by the thought "Never do anything today that can't be left until a week next Friday at 4.30pm."

Whilst I recognise that the piles of clutter which dominate my life might not be to everyone's taste, I prefer to "batch" things: Finance things when I really have to; Thinking things when I feel like thinking; Washing when there are no more socks; Tidying up things at least once a year, if necessary ... you get the drift.

I was wondering if Picasso's philosophy would work for a working mum like me. I really do too many things at a time, too many half done things at any one time. I think it would make my life a misery - its hard enough to get to bed as it is with late night ironing and trying to get excited about the nutritional contents of the next day's packed lunches. How pleasant it must be to sit in an artist's studio with lunch brought on a tray and only "important things" to think about.

On the other hand I thought - if I die tomorrow I won't have to do the piles of ironing and as long as the house isn't actually infested with rats it won't really matter. The only problem is that it could get a bit out of hand with everything getting even more out of control than I could stand.

Pithy aphorisms of the type you advert are often food for thought. If not, they are bad aphorisms. I’m sure we all have our favorites. I like to jot down the ones that I find most piquant. Our Unix system greets me with a witticism every morning when I log on. Some of these are “not altogether unmeaningless”, however. And that bit of litotes is courtesy of James Thurber.

The problem with modeling our lives by such apothegms , is that every maxim has its equally valid antithesis. Our universe, our lives, are too complex for simple formulaic rubrics. That said, I nevertheless admire your “batching” approach to living. Being an engineer I am conditioned to strive for efficiency, and doing chores when they are due is often a time and labor saver. But the cost of this efficiency is that sometimes one must put on dirty socks. :-)

We all make tradeoffs. Personally, I’d rather do my laundry less often, if it gives me more time to do the “more important” things, like reading a good book or taking the family out for a movie. Some folks would place a well manicured lawn before reading. It’s all in how you look at things, and who’s to really say who’s right? A good rule of thumb is: there ain’t no rule of thumb to living. We all must create our own way, and that’s the point. When we quit thinking for ourselves, we abdicate our greatest responsibility and relinquish our greatest right as human beings. Many of the most influential figures in history were free thinkers, eccentrics, or social misfits. They often were able to contribute more by their radical departure from the “important things” of their time. John Q. Normal is destined for obscurity in the grand scheme of things.

Here’s one of my favorite aphorisms, or is it poetry?

Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; Out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. --W. B. Yeats

If you find yourself musing on aphorisms, why not give poetry a try? It can be a heady experience.

I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so In whining poetry --John Donne

I haven't researched it yet but yes, zinzulation would seem to be a legitimate word. There are words for many kinds of sounds. Tintinnabulation (bell ringing), stridulation (cicada chirping), susurration (a whispering or murmuring sound), rataplan (a rhythmic drum beat), and borborygmus (a gastro-intestinal rumbling sound) are just a few that come to mind, and there are doubtless many more awaiting our discovery. I will add zinzulate and its inflected forms to my collection. I will post my research findings here Monday.

As promised, I have researched the word, 'zinzulation'. I consulted OED2, W2, W3, The Barnhard Dictionary of New English (BDNE) (1993, I think), The Encarta Dictionary of World English--an ordurous task, but I was desperate--, and a diverse handful of books offering collections of rare, exotic, and esoteric words for the verbevore and the epeolater. None of these sources list any form of 'zinzulation'.

This does not mean that this term is not a word. It just means that if it is being used at all, it hasn't caught on enough to catch the notice of the lexicographers. If you are in earnest to find out more about this locution, I would suggest you write a letter to Merriam-Webster's Language Research Dept. asking if they have any citations for this word in their files. They should be able to help, if the word has any currency at all. An e-mail will often do, although a paper letter sent by snail mail should assure you of a carefully researched response. The address is:

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